Johns Hopkins Admits Liability: Pays out $40 Million
What could be worse than watching your child suffer with overwhelming health issues that seem to have spiraling complications? Perhaps having trusted physicians and medical personnel fail you in their promise to provide reliable care is the only thing that could make matters more untenable. At Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, that is exactly what happened to nearly a dozen families.
Deaths and Injuries
A spokesman for the hospital admitted that the number of serious complications, including ruptures and sepsis, as well as fatalities, had risen dramatically in recent months, as regulators stipulated that comprehensive changes be enacted before further heart surgeries are undertaken. In fact, the fatality rate at All Children’s was higher than any other Florida facility experienced in at least a decade. Some of the most egregious issues include:
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Brain Damage: One young patient experienced brain damage as a result of a heart transplant operation. A broken suture led to extensive bleeding, ultimately causing the patient to lose the use of his arms and legs.
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Stroke: Another patient’s heart transplant surgery resulted in a massive stroke. A ruptured stitch led to internal bleeding, transforming the five-year old into a child who can no longer walk, speak, or even feed himself.
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Infection: One young girl died after she developed a severe infection following heart surgery. Improper sterilization of the surgical suite is blamed for the misfortune.
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Complications: A young woman who had been treated for congenital heart defects as a child returned to the hospital at age 26 in order to have an aortic conduit replaced. The simple outpatient procedure led to her death one day later, presumably because the surgeon missed signals of irregularities.
Problems at the Hospital
According to National Nurses United, bedside nurses have been alarmed by problems at the hospital for some time. They claim that health care workers are systematically silenced in a number of ways when they attempt to advocate for patients in ways that buck the system. While they attempted to promote patient safety by protesting inadequate supplies and staffing or unreliable equipment, administrators ignored them and made them feel vulnerable to attacks.
Determining Settlement Amounts
Johns Hopkins has taken responsibility for these and other tragedies, and is in negotiations to compensate families for them, already having paid out on some. Determining the amount of a settlement is based on a number of factors, including:
- Medical expenses incurred by the patient’s family;
- The cost of care for the patient in the future;
- Lost earning potential of the patient;
- Pain and suffering:
- The historical payouts awarded by juries.
Frequently, children who become profoundly disabled require significant support for a lifetime, costing millions of dollars. But even in the case of child fatalities, settlements can and do reach into the millions.
Addressing Tragedies
While no amount of money could ever begin to make up for medical malpractice that takes the health or life of your child, securing a major settlement against reckless medical providers will send a message that their malpractice errors will not be tolerated in Florida. To learn about your rights and explore the possibilities moving forward, schedule a free, confidential consultation with the empathetic and aggressive Kissimmee medical malpractice attorneys at Salazar & Kelly Law Group, P.A. in our office today.
Resource:
tampabay.com/investigations/2019/08/23/johns-hopkins-agrees-to-pay-nearly-40-million-to-two-families-hurt-by-all-childrens-heart-surgeries/
nationalnursesunited.org/press/nurses-respond-hopkins-40-million-pediatric-malpractice-settlements
floridapolitics.com/archives/288458-all-childrens-hospital-faces-malpractice-suit-in-death-of-26-year-old-mother
https://www.salazarandkelly.com/the-many-faces-of-medical-malpractice/
